Jerry Hall Celebrates 70: From Supermodel to Rock Muse and Beyond

Long before she became one half of one of rock’s most famous couples, Jerry Hallwas already a fashion superstar.

The Texas-born model, actress and style icon turns 70 on July 2 after a career that has taken her from the beaches of Saint-Tropez to the runways of Paris, the legendary dance floor at Studio 54 and the front pages of newspapers around the world. Along the way, she became a muse to artists, photographers and musicians while building a career that extended far beyond the headlines surrounding her personal life.

Hall’s glamorous career was a world away from her upbringing in Mesquite, Texas, where she later told Texas Monthly she spent summers on her grandmother‘s farm near Gonzales “swimming in the trough and playing in the chicken feed.” Even after finding international fame, she never completely lost sight of those roots.

Hall also said that she dreamed of becoming a model from an early age. She recalled standing in front of a mirror every night practicing dozens of poses while studying photos of Joan Crawford and Marlene Dietrich, determined to make it out of Texas and into the fashion world.

Hall’s life changed almost overnight when she was discovered by fashion agent Claude Haddad while sunbathing on a beach in Saint-Tropez shortly before her 17th birthday. She moved to Paris, where she shared a tiny hotel room with another aspiring model who would soon become a superstar in her own right: Grace Jones.

Recalling those early days in a 2010 interview with Harper’s BAZAAR, Hall said, “Grace was trying to be a model. She and I put on cabaret shows for our friends. We told her she had to be a singer.”

Those years introduced Hall to some of the biggest names in art and fashion. She met fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez, photographer Helmut Newton, artist Salvador Dalí and later became a frequent subject for Andy Warhol. Looking back, Hall said she gravitated toward “artistic and creative types.”

Her breakthrough came in 1975 when she appeared as the unforgettable mermaid on the cover of Roxy Music’s album Siren. The striking image became one of rock’s most iconic album covers and helped transform Hall into an international celebrity. By 1977, she had appeared on dozens of magazine covers, including Vogue and Cosmopolitan, and had become one of the world’s highest-paid models.

Reflecting on those early opportunities, Hall told Harper’s BAZAAR, “Yves Saint Laurent was my first fashion show. I wore his tuxedo. And Helmut Newton was my first photographer, in 1973. I was really very lucky. I had an amazing career.”

The Siren cover also changed Hall’s personal life. She began dating Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry after the album shoot, but another rock legend soon entered the picture.

Hall first met Mick Jagger while having dinner with Ferry. In her autobiography, she recalled that Jagger brushed his leg against hers beneath the table, writing that she “felt an electric jolt.”

The pair began a relationship in 1977 that would last more than two decades and produce four children: Elizabeth, James, Georgia May and Gabriel. Together, Hall and Jagger became one of the defining celebrity couples of the rock era, regularly photographed everywhere from Studio 54 to red carpet events around the world.

Asked years later whether she remembered what she wore the night they met, Hall didn’t hesitate.

“Yeah, I can,” she told Harper’s BAZAAR. “I was wearing linen trousers, kind of full, ’30s, and they buttoned at the side. I had this crocheted sweater; it was ’30s too, with short sleeves and a knitted collar. And a matching straw beret. All ’30s. I always liked to do a look from a period, you know. Ha, ha! And I loved the ’50s. The Hollywood sort of slightly slutty glamour. I still love that.”

Although Hall became synonymous with supermodel glamour, she also built a successful acting career, appearing in films including Batman and Urban Cowboy while earning acclaim on stage in London’s West End and on Broadway.

One of her most unusual achievements came in 2004, when she earned a Guinness World Record after making appearances in six different London musicals in a single evening, entertaining more than 9,000 theatergoers in the process.

Hall continues to stay active in entertainment and is set to appear in the second season of The Celebrity Traitors in the UK later this year.

Looking back on a remarkable life that has spanned fashion, film, theater and rock history, Hall expressed few regrets.

“I don’t have any regrets,” she told Harper’s BAZAAR. “I’m very happy.”

Related: Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall’s Daughter Leaves Little to the Imagination in Short, Sheer Dress

This story was originally published by Parade on Jul 2, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.